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MORE ABOUT THE GORHAM MANUFACTURING COMPANY
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The Gorham Manufacturing Company: Art Nouveau Silver
Combining the free-flowing lines of
Art Nouveau with the craftsmanship sensibility of the Arts and Crafts
tradition, the Gorham Manufacturing Company began to produce pieces of
silver which featured not only an entirely new aesthetic, but a new
method of manufacture. Gorham represented a remarkable change in the
history of American manufacturing processes; from one entirely based on
industrial production to one driven by hand-craftsmanship. More than
Tiffany Glass, French Art Nouveau glass, or even art pottery, Gorham's
Marteléline of silver embraced the Arts and Crafts ideals of Morris in
an exemplary manner. Gorham remained true to contemporary decorative
arts principles in theory as well as in practice. While Rookwood's
molded pottery and Tiffany's glass were created in the
"spirit" of Morris' model, Gorham stands as a testament to
what could actually be accomplished, notably the designer/ skilled
craftsman successfully replaced industrial production and the machine. Gorham, an industrial force which employed over one
thousand workers, produced volumes of silverwares for everyday America
through sophisticated machinery. Combining popular revival styles from
Europe and colonial trends in the United States, Gorham manufactured a
highly marketable product through a series of retail outlets, including
the firm's Stanford White Building on Fifth Avenue. The great increase
in the size and wealth of the middle class created a demand for silver
that only mass-production methods could supply. The development of
technology in the form of mechanized casting, rolling, and
electroplating, as well as the discovery of extensive deposits of silver
in the West, facilitated mass production. Technology was essential in
order to produce the amount of silver needed to meet the market demand.
Though all silver manufacturing firms would have been aware of the
contemporary decorative arts production methods, they did not
necessarily follow the philosophy. Art historian, Alistar Duncan
explains: The Arts and Crafts silver
industry, both the single artisan and larger firms, embraced the same
philosophy, though greater public demand for silverware led to the
widespread use of machinery, such as stamping presses, to expedite
production.1 Gorham, too, utilized machinery for
its mass-produced series of silver. Martelé, however, as a line of
silver which embraced the Arts and Crafts ideals, represents a break
with mass production. Gorham created two distinctly separate lines with
clearly delineated methods of production and design. Gorham Manufacturing Company originated as
"Gorham and Webster," a firm whose chief product was spoons.
It began in 1831 with the partnership of Jabez Gorham, a master
craftsman, and Henry L. Webster. The firm also made thimbles, combs,
jewelry, and other small items. In 1847 Jabez retired and his son, John
Gorham, took control of the company. John Gorham enlarged the premises
in downtown Providence, improved the designs, and utilized factory
mechanization. Gorham believed so strongly in modern manufacturing
methods that he was one of the first to introduce factory methods to
augment hand craftsmanship in the production of silverware. In May, 1852
Gorham left for Europe, where he visited silver workshops and
manufacturers in London. He also talked to individual specialists,
including craftsmen and toolmakers. Gorham was primarily interested in
cutting-edge technology but also spent extended time with master
craftsmen, suggesting the firm's devotion to quality workmanship within
a manufacturing context. John Gorham also sought out highly skilled
foreign workmen to train his American workers. George Wilkinson, a
premier designer and workshop manager, represents such a worker. The
company changed hands several times over the following decades, but
operated under a 1865 charter granted by the Rhode Island legislature by
the name of "Gorham Manufacturing Company." The firm continued
to grow, and in 1890 relocated to an up-to-date factory on Adelaide
Avenue in Providence. Designs followed international trends, as many
American designers traveled to France and Germany to select motifs.
Additionally, the company also hired mature workers with a wide range of
skills, including silversmiths, molders, chasers, engravers, figure and
pattern cutters, embossers, and many more. This list illustrates the
many processes involved in the manufacture of silver, not all of which
were mechanized. As was common at the time, Gorham employees worked ten
hours a day and were divided into distinct departments, organized by
specialty. For Gorham, the period between 1890 and 1915 marks a
time of growth and considerable artistic achievement due to two men:
William Christmas Codman and Edward Holbrook. Holbrook, an entrepreneur,
patron of the arts, merchandiser, and promoter, was determined to make
Gorham preeminent in the field of fine silverwares. Holbrook, a
brilliant financier, gained control of Gorham through a holding company,
Silversmiths Company and owned seven American silver manufacturers by
1913.2 At Gorham he dominated management and expansion and pioneered the
modern factory in Elmwood. Codman, already famous in England for his
work in ecclesiastical and Gothic designs, joined Gorham in 1891. Gorham produced a large volume of silver for an
American mass market while simultaneously retaining the artisans needed
to create the exquisite showpieces for exhibition. Holbrook used the
great international expositions to promote the silver, and enjoyed
success at both the Philadelphia Centennial and the 1889 Paris
Exposition. The ability to create both volumes of silver which also were
works of exquisite artistry illustrates Gorham's virtuosity. The French
government praised the Gorham exhibit at the 1893 Colombian Exposition
in Chicago: Gorham is the silversmith proper -
the great manufacturer who produces silverware for daily use, and who
throws every day on the American market, millions of table services - in
silver and plated ware - but who owes to the mechanical processes and
complete equipment of which he has the use, the means of doing well and
economical work to satisfy his customers. At the same time, he is able
to produce artistic and decorative work, calling for the highest skilled
and careful hand labor.3
The dichotomy between established mass-produced Gorham
wares and its new line, Martelé, is commonly raised in discussions of
Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau decorative arts. Tiffany and French
glass, for example, used methods of hand craftsmanship in tandem with
those of mass production. But Gorham, unlike other firms considered in
this discussion, clearly distinguished its different lines for the
public. Gorham took the two processes and, instead of using properties
of both, created two distinctly separate ranges of silver with clearly
delineated methods of production and design. The mass-produced line
featured the steam-powered drop press and the efficient factory in
Elmwood, resulting in highly mechanized methods of inexpensive silver
making. Gorham was not unaware of the contradictions in their working
methods, but strove to endow their machine-made wares of lesser quality
with true craftsmanship. A Paris Exposition publication stated: The nineteenth century, especially
in America, has been characterized by the enormous mechanical production
of articles of one sort or another, many of them largely meretricious,
and having neither the design nor the workmanship that would permit them
to stand as works of art. But the abuse, not the use, of machinery is
responsible for this.4 With its new line of silver in the
Art Nouveau style, Gorham aspired to produce high articles in both
design and workmanship. During the 1890s, the English Arts and Crafts movement
combined with the Art Nouveau style to compliment the high volume
production at Gorham. The Martelé line was conceived under the
financial supervision of Edward Holbrook and the artistic direction of
William Codman. This luxury style produced many fewer pieces of silver
and used a labor-intensive method of manufacture. Both Holbrook and
Codman were devoted to the arts but realized the international trend for
quality, well-designed goods, and responded accordingly. The Gorham
"Lion, Anchor and G" trademark, stamped on all pieces of
sterling silver, ensured quality and fine workmanship. Furthermore,
Gorham capitalized on the Art Nouveau aesthetic while conforming to the
Arts and Crafts methodology. The economics of commercial design led
Gorham to capture as much market share as possible. This resulted in
high volume, inexpensive goods manufactured simultaneously alongside
luxury silverwares. Martelé, one of the most acclaimed lines of Art
Nouveau silverware in the world, brought the Gorham Manufacturing
Company product recognition for its other lines as well as a substantial
share in the luxury-goods market. The Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau movements enjoyed
their greatest popularity simultaneously during the period from 1890 to
1910. Smiths in many countries adopted Art Nouveau, a style that was
viewed as completely new although it sometimes incorporated themes from
earlier periods. Artisans chased in silver the style's flowing
curvilinear forms, known as 'whiplash curves,' flowers and maidens with
flowing hair and trailing gowns. By the 1860s the reaction against the excessive detail
and repetitiveness of the various revivals inspired and organized by
John Ruskin and William Morris in England, affected American silver
production. Charles Eastlake's book, Hints on Household Taste, first
published in England in 1868 and in America in 1872, applauded straight
lines, simple, "honest" construction, and cherished notions of
good design and skillful workmanship. The protagonists of the Arts and
Crafts movement rejected machinery in favor of a return to
craftsmanship. Gorham did so with wares designed in the Art Nouveau
style. William Codman, hailing from England and familiar with the
craftsman aesthetic, brought the tradition to Gorham. As the artistic
director, he led the formation of a number of lines in the Art Nouveau
style, drawing on the Arts and Crafts principles of hand craftsmanship.
Of those lines, Martelé received the most acclaim.
One line, introduced in about 1901 and known as "Athenic,"
featured combinations of silver with copper, glass, and ivory. It was
designed as an inexpensive art line in sterling to complement Martelé.
Despite the fact that the pieces still required much handiwork, machines
were used for this line as much as possible. A spinning lathe, for
example, decreased the number of hours spent on the bodies of the
pieces. Gorham combined glass and ceramics with silver in a
variety of ways. A silver rim strengthened the glass piece as well as
provided a decorative element. Carafes and decanters were decorated with
motifs in silver chasing, as were glass bottles encased in silver. The
silver deposit overlay entailed the transformation of glass and ceramics
into electrical conductors, then immersed them in a plating bath under
opposite conditions, where the entire surface of the object became
plated in silver. The design was then painted on top of the
electroplated silver surface with a non-conductive "resist"
varnish. Then the plating current was reversed, which re-dissolved the
silver and left the design intact. Martelé was the premier line of Gorham Art Nouveau
silver. Changing ideas about how objects should be made during the 1880s
had affected the silver industry. Gorham joined the reaction against
cheap manufacture and machine production, and championed well-trained
craftsmen working in small shops, creating useful, well-made, beautiful
objects. Leslie Bowman, explains the reasons behind Gorham's decision to
develop the Martelé line: Gorham's Martelé silver is
startling testimony to the pervasive commercial influence of the Arts
and Crafts movement in America. Rivaled only by Tiffany and Company,
Gorham was among the largest silver firms in the world by the end of the
nineteenth century. The company was fully mechanized, so its decision to
introduce the hand wrought Martelé line was an expensive venture,
necessitating the hiring and training of traditional craftsmen. However,
while most Arts and Crafts silversmiths or silver companies worked in
pre-industrial medieval and colonial styles, Gorham chose a progressive
look, Art Nouveau.5 The principles upon which Martelébased
its methods of production were, to a large extent, decided by Codman and
contemporary decorative arts discourse. The intellectual climate that
fostered the Arts and Crafts movement in England considerably influenced
Codman's work at Gorham. He was familiar with current thought on the
decorative arts, as well as with the leading men behind the Arts and
Crafts movement: John Ruskin, William Morris, C.R. Ashbee, and Aubrey
Beardsley. Gorham employee Horace Townsend, in his essay of 1898
entitled "An Artistic Experiment," stated Gorham's Arts and
Crafts ideology. He cited John Ruskin as the founder of the reform
movement that stressed "Truth and Beauty" as the guiding
design principles behind Martelé.6 Gorham further proclaimed their line
as the embodiment of Ruskin's ideals because it was created through a
close working relationship between the craftsman and designer. For a firm which had based its success, in large part,
on the efficient use of the machine, the move to an entirely hand
crafted line seemed inconsistent with general policies. But Gorham
realized the merits of quality, handmade items and could afford to
devote a portion of their corporation to pure craftsmanship. In February
of 1908, Frederick W. Coburn reported: Tiffany and the Gorham
[Manufacturing Company] have yielded to the Arts and Crafts movement a
small but influential contingent of skilled designers who know the
modern and ancient practices of their craft, and who are outside the big
commercial establishments solely because they prefer to produce under
individualistic conditions which do not exist there.7 Firm beliefs in craftsmanship and quality led Gorham
to design the luxury line of handmade Martelé silver. Gorham's three
guiding principles behind Martelé, as stated in Histories of the
Company, of 1900 were as follows: These were the facts, then, which
the Managers of the Gorham Company fully recognized when they decided
upon their new departure and which they determined to adopt as their
most artistic principle. The hammer, they determined, should reign
supreme. Secondly, they laid it down as an axiom that the designer and
the craftsman, if they could not actually be united in the same
individual, should be at all events brought into such close connection
that the resultant effect should be practically the same. There was yet
a third guiding principle to be borne in mind. The work they produced
should be of its own century. Beautiful as is the work of the
"Little Masters" of the past, it yet speaks in a dead and
forgotten tongue. The designer of today, if he is a true artist, must
create and not copy. This is the result which those who had led in the
modern revival of the sister arts had taught, and it was felt to be time
for the silversmith in his turn to teach it through the agency of the
works he should produce.8 These principles ranked Gorham
among the American leaders of truly modern wares. By restricting their
new work to modern styles, they necessarily fell into Art Nouveau
because it was the modern art of 1900. In contrast, their rivals
produced conservative, plain, and traditional pieces of American silver
based on the dominant Colonial Revival style.9 Much evidence exists as to how the manufacturers kept
up-to-date with the decorative arts discourse. Gorham kept its library
stocked with modern design books from America and abroad. The library
also contained contemporary journals and magazines of modern art,
including, The International Studio, The Art Amateur, and Art and
Decoration. Further, Holbrook, the mastermind behind Gorham's new
direction, established his office in New York, not Providence. There he
would have been aware of all current trends in the decorative arts. His
efforts combined with the designs of William Codman led to the success
of the Martelé line, known both for its modernity and consistency with
the craft tradition. Due to the philosophy surrounding the creation of
Martelé, Gorham was hailed as one of the American proponents of Morris'
Arts and Crafts ideals, and the company joined the avant garde of
American decorative arts producers. Silver expert Charles Carpenter
explains: Gorham's entry into a line of
handmade silverwares placed them squarely in the forefront of the Arts
and Crafts movement in America. Arts and Crafts societies were formed in
both Boston and Chicago in 1897, the year Gorham started making Martelé,
and the stated purposes of these societies were strikingly similar to
those of Gorham.10 Professor Charles Eliot Norton, the
first elected president of the Boston Society of Arts and Crafts,
outlined the aims of the society: The Society of Arts and Crafts is
incorporated for the purpose of promoting artistic work in all branches
of handicraft. It hopes to bring designers and workmen into mutually
helpful relations, and to encourage workmen to execute designs of their
own. It endeavors to stimulate in workmen an appreciation of the dignity
and value of good design; to counteract the popular impatience of Law
and Form; and the desire for over-ornamentation and specious
originality. It will insist upon the regard for the relation between the
form of an object and its use, and of harmony and fitness in decoration
put upon it.11 These principles mirrored those of Gorham and secured
its place in the decorative arts discussion. When Gorham first introduced its revolutionary new
range of handmade silverwares at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York,
it was known only as "hand wrought silver." Only when Gorham
introduced the line officially at the Paris Exposition of 1900 did the
name "Martelé" emerge. "Martelé" is the French
word for "hammered" or "hand-hammered" silver. Gorham chose the 1900 Exposition Universalle in Paris
as the international showcase for Martelé silverwares. The company
produced exceptional and ambitious pieces for this exhibition. By
creating an entire series of objects in a particular form, the best
objects could be sent to France. Codman himself designed most of the
pieces and enlisted the best silversmiths to ensure the highest
technical and artistic quality. A collaboration between Codman and Louis
C. Tiffany brought a Martelé liqueur set fitted with Tiffany glass to
the exhibit. Gorham's exhibit proved successful, as the company returned
home with the Grand Prix for their silverwares as well as thirty other
citations. Additionally, Edward Holbrook was made Chevalier of the
Legion of Honor, and William Codman won a gold medal. Gorham hoped that
the line would become a commercial success as well, but that could not
happen without the praise of critics. One French critic stated, "It
is marvelous that while the taste of New Yorkers differs from ours in so
many ways, the Gorham Manufacturing Co. has succeeded so grandly in
satisfying us without dissatisfying its clientele."12 Overall, the
reaction to Martelé was positive, pleasing both the critics and the
buying public alike. From that overwhelming success onward, Gorham utilized
the name "Martelé" for their entire handmade line. Though the
entirely hand-crafted line proved labor-intensive, Gorham produced a
significant amount of silver. Overall, the company made about 4800
pieces of Martelé from 1897 to 1912. This new direction for Gorham, led
by Codman and Holbrook, met with praise and success in America and
abroad. Not only the creator of the Martelé line, William
Codman was the principle designer of all the early pieces. They featured
an Art Nouveau design of harmonious undulations suggesting biomorphic
organisms. While the delicate, languid naturalism, soft fluid
appearance, symmetry, and lack of elongation differentiate it from most
work in the Art Nouveau style, the motifs and flowing quality are
characteristic. The Martelé vessels featured decorations such as waves,
mermaids, and various leaves and flowers, all executed in flowing forms.
Codman's designs displayed easy, sensuous curves, undulating out-turned
rims, and sensuous, chased decorations suggesting natural forms. The impressionistic drawings by Codman and the other
designers lacked precise details, contrary to standard industry designs.
This forced craftsmen to work closely with the designers, adjusting the
decorations as needed. Surprisingly, the finished products reflected the
original drawings to a remarkable degree. Each designer, more than ever
before, involved himself in the work of the silversmith, while the
silversmith, in turn, became involved with the design process. The
designer would draw the chasing designs directly on the body of the
silver vessel before commencing the chasing. Instead of surface
decoration, each vessel featured ornamentation that was integral to the
total piece. The specific level of expertise needed for this line
led Gorham to initiate a school in 1896 to train silversmiths in making
hollow wares using only simple hand tools. This eighteenth century
method consisted of raising a form from a flat sheet of silver. As a
revolutionary concept, hand labor superseded the mechanical aids of the
spinning lathes and stamping presses. This revolutionary move to hand craftsmanship once
again earned Gorham the praise of the art world. The hand wrought silver
meant that the artist created from his own inspiration or in
collaboration with the designer. In the house publication Histories of
the Company, 1900, Gorham outlined its manufacturing beliefs: The silver Martelé stands quite by
itself, and means very much indeed to the art world, for every separate
piece is beaten up from the raw bullion by hand under the direct
supervision of the man who created the design. Every line has that
strength and beauty and character which can come only from the loving
touch and the constant interest of the true creator. There are schools and movements in all the arts. The
Gorham Company has, for the first time, established a school of freedom.
Not only are its doors thrown open to all the great craftsmen of the
world, whose work finds nowhere more true appreciation and more earnest
support, but a young man who has within him the desire to fashion
something of beauty in silver finds here a welcome which does not carry
with it the attempted control of his expression.13 This freedom of the artist was a
significant principle in Morris' philosophy, where designers worked
closely with the craftsmen. Plant records show further collaboration:
two different craftsmen worked on each Martelépiece, one made the ware
and the second produced the chasing. Made in the true Arts and Crafts
tradition, craftsmen confined themselves to the use of hammers and
chasing tools on flat pieces of silver. The pieces were not as refined
as other lines of Gorham silver. Artisans conspicuously left the marks
from the hammer in a piece, though sometimes they planished them smooth.
Other silver manufacturers used machines to put
"hand-hammered" marks on silver to appear as authentic
hand-worked pieces, but craftsmen hammered all Marteléby hand.
Furthermore, no mechanical finishing of any kind was used on this line
of Gorham silver. Gorham's extensive, comprehensive records provide
valuable information about the company's wares. The company precisely
recorded the number of hours spent on each piece of Martelé in the job
costing records. Each plant cost record corresponded to one piece, for
which there is also an accompanying photograph. The files recorded the
silver composition, record number, form, weight, and costs of the alloy,
making and chasing (in hours), oxidized finish, casting, overhead,
profit, net, and retail prices. Further, Gorham maintained careful
records of each employee. Payroll record books, executive salary books,
and employment cards (pink for female employees, blue for male) remain
intact today. Much of the general growth and success of The Gorham
Company was due to the labor supply of superbly trained artisans backed
up by a large, mostly immigrant, work force. All Gorham employees worked
for ten hours, six days per week, and fifty weeks per year. The company
brought over many of the designers and master craftsmen from Europe. At
the height of Martelé production, of the forty-four or so chasers, at
least half had been trained in Europe. Further evidence, through salary
records, shows that quality chasers were rare and held in high esteem.
When the Martelé line began in 1897, silversmiths were paid forty-five
cents per hour and chasers forty cents per hour. Only three years later,
in 1900, the silversmiths still made forty-five cents per hour, while
the chasers' wage had increased to fifty cents an hour. This suggests
that chasers who could do the Martelé work were in short supply.14 At
the factory, rumor has it that the rooms where the chasing was executed
were referred to as the "House of Lords". With the distinct line of Martelé and other Art
Nouveau wares, the firm decided to pursue an elite, luxury market.
Gorham had devoted four years of research and development to the line
before it emerged on the market in any significant way. Accordingly,
Gorham priced and marketed Martelé as the most luxurious and artistic
of silverwares. One of the earliest advertisements for Martelé appeared
in Harper's Magazine in April, 1900. It stated: Martelé is the most Exclusive
Silverware for Wedding Gifts. The few examples of the new and exquisite
Martelé that the Gorham Company, Silversmiths, have been able to
produce, up to the present time for the consideration of the
discriminating art lover, have emphasized anew the value of
individuality in all worthy art work. Each piece is the product of an
artist trained in the Gorham Company's own school of design, established
four years ago with the express purpose of reviving the best traditions
and restoring the spirit of healthy competition that underlay the
beautiful work of mediaeval metal-workers and goldsmiths. Martelé, as
its name indicates, cannot be imitated successfully by any of the
inferior and purely mechanical methods that are too often used in an
attempt to trade upon the ideas of really creative artists.15 Gorham Company's claim to having
only produced a few examples of Martelémay be considered advertising
license, since by that time, over one thousand pieces of Marteléexisted.
However, Gorham chose to emphasize the exclusiveness of the line. In
1905 Gorham ran aseries of advertisements in the upscale magazine
Country Life in America. The February advertisement stated, These exquisite pieces - each an
individual creation, never to be duplicated - are hand-wrought by
craftsmen who are encouraged to realize the highest ideals of their art
unhampered by the ordinary commercial consideration of expense.16 The company posited the Marteléline
as an elite and fashionable product, while simultaneously the brand name
recognition enhanced the reputation of Gorham's other lines. A November
Country Life in America advertisement declared, The ever-increasing fashionable
predilection for Martelé Silver, one of the Gorham Company's exclusive
products, is more reasonable than many of fashion's dictates. Not only
is Martelé wrought entirely by hand, but at every stage of its
fashioning it is controlled by the same artist whose creative ability
conceived the design.17 The firm strove to clearly
emphasize the distinct differences between Marteléand the other silver
series. Gorham desired respect and the acknowledgment of a superior
product within the marketplace for the costly and labor intensive Martelérange
of silver. In marketing its Martelé products, Gorham heavily
stressed that the silver was an actual work of "high" art.
Gorham joined modern and decorative art, and convinced buyers to
purchase for aesthetic reasons. The sales pitches that Gorham provided
their representatives emphasized this point. The Gorham Company
instructed its dealers: Silverware is not mere merchandise.
While it is a utility, it is also an embodiment of art. A love of the
artistic is a necessary preliminary to a desire to possess fine
silverware. A jeweler or jeweler's salesman who is indifferent to this
appeal of art as embodied in the product of the silversmith will not
prove a material factor in stimulating the sale of silverware. And even
if he is alive to artistic appeal, he is not fitted to sell silverware
with any large measure of success unless he is also informed on the
subject.18 William Codman, in his Historical
and Biographical Sketch of the Gorham Manufacturing Company, expounded
on the subject of Marteléas an art: There is a place in the home for
the machine-made articles as there is also a place, and perhaps a more
highly honored one, for the work of art, which is the sole product of
the thinking brain and the cunning hand of the craftsman. This company
has always in mind the great principle of bringing the designer and the
artisan closer together; of giving the craftsman a real interest in has
own work and in the final project. Of the many and varied productions of
the Gorham Manufacturing Company, it may be safely said that none are of
more interest from the purely artistic standpoint, than those rarely
beautiful and individual pieces which are produced by the method known
as Martelé.19Gorham projected the view of their Marteléline as both an
elite luxury product and also marketed it as a literal work of art. Almost as quickly as it arrived upon the scene in
significant quantities, Martelé began to fall out of favor. Charles
Venable contends that the declining market for Martelé commenced with
the market saturation of 1905. He posits that Martelé was further
rejected due to the decrease in the number of servants from the peak of
1910. Large houses filled with bric-a-brac and complicated dining
rituals became progressively difficult to maintain. Because they were
easier to clean, consumers chose simpler designs.20 Although a few
pieces were made until the 1930s, Gorham simplified Martelé designs
around 1909 although sales continued to decline. Though it proved labor-intensive in its production,
the Martelé line sold well and also lent prestige and product name
recognition to other Gorham lines. The Martelé line of the Gorham
Manufacturing Company proved overwhelmingly successful in its commitment
to Arts and Crafts principles. Gorham used only hand-hammered techniques
while it joined the designer and the craftsman. Most importantly to this
discussion, the company used only the purest form of the Arts and Crafts
tradition to manufacture their wares. The guiding influence of Edward
Holbrook and the artistic direction of William Codman resulted in a line
of silver which did not fall prey to the pitfalls of commercial
decorative arts production. Unlike other firms such as Tiffany or
Rookwood which mass-produced objects to meet market demands, the
business side of Martelé did not interfere with manufacturing
techniques. Gorham never utilized machinery or mass-production
techniques to meet costs. Instead the company marketed the silver as a
luxury good and thus solved the problem of creating a labor-intensive,
expensive product.
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